tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60918744418279042692024-03-13T13:04:23.381+01:00Beatnik's Microsoft CRM Blog"keep the customer satisfied" (simon&garfunkel, 1970)Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-19507009944279442072009-08-17T07:34:00.011+01:002009-08-17T08:08:55.541+01:00CRM Picklist generator updated - supporting values, premade lists<a href="http://www.beatnik.at/picklist_for_mscrm.php" target="_blank"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 226px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Soj_vnuNdfI/AAAAAAAAAGw/mIXuhHW4uig/s400/picklistgenerator.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370822923583484258" /></a><br/><br />The <a href="http://www.beatnik.at/picklist_for_mscrm.php">CRM Picklist generator </a>has been updated and now supports not only generating labels but also setting values. I dropped 3.0 compatibility, because it was used very rarely. In addition I have added some ready to use examples that might be helpful. <em>Examples provided "as is". Completeness of the information and data provided in the given cases and examples is excluded</em>.<br /><br />If you have suggestions for new lists you'd like to see, leave a comment.<br /><br />Some premade lists:<br /><br /><strong>International</strong><br /><ul><li>ISO Countries</li><br /><li>Hours of the day, 30 min</li><br /><li>Car Brands / Automarken</li><br /><li>List of years 1900-2009</li><br /><li>Business Software packages</li><br /><li>Windows Versions</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><strong>English</strong><br /><ul><li>Countries of the world</li><br /><li>US States long</li><br /><li>US States short</li><br /><li>British counties</li><br /><li>Nationalities</li><br /><li>Main Industries</li><br /><li>Salutation</li><br /><li>Medical persons</li><br /><li>Languages</li><br /><li>Medical Fields</li><br /><li>Hobbies</li><br /><li>Sports & Hobbies</li><br /><li>Natural desasters</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><strong>Deutsch</strong><br /><ul><li>Länder der Welt</li><br /><li>Anrede</li><br /><li>Bundesländer Deutschland</li><br /><li>Berufliche Funktionen</li><br /></ul>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-698944864117291242009-04-07T10:41:00.009+01:002009-04-07T10:57:22.350+01:00Agent Communications Panel for OCS and CRM<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/SdsjQV6s71I/AAAAAAAAAGg/UrqlUVzj7uI/s1600-h/Agent-communications-panel_full.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/SdsgNcm_0DI/AAAAAAAAAGY/pTOMitn4n4c/s400/Agent-communications-panel.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321882800058519602" /></a><br /><br />Obviously Microsoft is heading full speed towards tight integration of strategic business applications. Now they have released a <strong>FREE</strong> addon that "integrates Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2 (OCS) and enables users to manage their communications (make calls, receive calls, conference, chat, and monitor presence information) from their Dynamics CRM Web client." Compare that to other CRM solutions where you might have to spend a lot of dough to get such a functionality. Nice²<br /><br />Deployment seems rather easy, download here:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0d689f13-4953-40ea-995e-49469dae559e">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0d689f13-4953-40ea-995e-49469dae559e</a><br /><br />Gonna check and let you know more soon....Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-56829848743396925832009-03-05T09:36:00.031+01:002009-03-05T14:23:52.156+01:00Pimp your Duplicate Detection with Phonetic Matching (Soundex)<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Sa_Ey8ASuyI/AAAAAAAAAGA/G7JkBWHzFU4/s1600-h/soundex.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309678865072962338" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 375px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Sa_Ey8ASuyI/AAAAAAAAAGA/G7JkBWHzFU4/s400/soundex.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Ever wanted to get some more "fuzziness" in your detection rules? Then <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundex">Soundex </a>as a phonetic algorithm will be your friend. There are some <a href="http://www.sound-ex.com/index.html">caveats </a>but for some applications it might be useful. The nice thing is, that it's super-easy to implement.<br /><br />Let's consider two options (in your project you might want to go for a "best of both worlds" approach by using both):<br /><br /><strong>Method1 Clientside: Generating the Soundex-Code at the onSave event</strong><br /><strong>Pro</strong>: Quick and easy implementation<br /><strong>Con</strong>: Will not work on imports or Bulk Operations<br /><br />Step by step:<br /><br /><strong>1)</strong> add a custom field "new_soundex_lastname" to the desired entity (lead, account, contact or any custom entity)<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Sa-56BdDCqI/AAAAAAAAAFo/3kWJATwmfZM/s1600-h/ScreenHunter_03+Mar.+05+09.01.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309666892166924962" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 238px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Sa-56BdDCqI/AAAAAAAAAFo/3kWJATwmfZM/s400/ScreenHunter_03+Mar.+05+09.01.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><strong>2)</strong> add the field to the form<br><br /><strong>3)</strong> add this onSave event:<br /><div id='iframeDivc6c89b88-e61e-4b28-b6ee-90595b449787' style='display:none;margin:0px;'><iframe id='iframec6c89b88-e61e-4b28-b6ee-90595b449787' src='http://www.blogtrog.com/code.aspx?id=c6c89b88-e61e-4b28-b6ee-90595b449787' style='width: 400px; height: 400px; border: 1px solid #e0e0e0;margin:0px;' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div id='noIframeDivc6c89b88-e61e-4b28-b6ee-90595b449787' style='display:block;margin:0px;'><pre><div><!--<br /><br />Code highlighting produced by Actipro CodeHighlighter (freeware)<br />http://www.CodeHighlighter.com/<br /><br />--><span style="color: #0000FF;">function</span><span style="color: #000000;"> soundex(str) {<br /> </span><span style="color: #008000;">//</span><span style="color: #008000;"> original from http://phpjs.org/functions/soundex:520</span><span style="color: #008000;"><br /></span><span style="color: #000000;"><br /> </span><span style="color: #0000FF;">var</span><span style="color: #000000;"> i, j, l, r, p </span><span style="color: #000000;">=</span><span style="color: #000000;"> isNaN(p) </span><span style="color: #000000;">?</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">4</span><span style="color: #000000;"> : p </span><span style="color: #000000;">></span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">10</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">?</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">10</span><span style="color: #000000;"> : p </span><span style="color: #000000;"><</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">4</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">?</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">4</span><span style="color: #000000;"> : p;<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000FF;">var</span><span style="color: #000000;"> m </span><span style="color: #000000;">=</span><span style="color: #000000;"> {BFPV: </span><span style="color: #000000;">1</span><span style="color: #000000;">, CGJKQSXZ: </span><span style="color: #000000;">2</span><span style="color: #000000;">, DT: </span><span style="color: #000000;">3</span><span style="color: #000000;">, L: </span><span style="color: #000000;">4</span><span style="color: #000000;">, MN: </span><span style="color: #000000;">5</span><span style="color: #000000;">, R: </span><span style="color: #000000;">6</span><span style="color: #000000;">};<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000FF;">var</span><span style="color: #000000;"> r </span><span style="color: #000000;">=</span><span style="color: #000000;"> (s </span><span style="color: #000000;">=</span><span style="color: #000000;"> (str</span><span style="color: #000000;">+</span><span style="color: #000000;">''</span><span style="color: #000000;">).toUpperCase().replace(</span><span style="color: #000000;">/</span><span style="color: #000000;">[^A-Z]</span><span style="color: #000000;">/</span><span style="color: #000000;">g, </span><span style="color: #000000;">""</span><span style="color: #000000;">).split(</span><span style="color: #000000;">""</span><span style="color: #000000;">)).splice(</span><span style="color: #000000;">0</span><span style="color: #000000;">, </span><span style="color: #000000;">1</span><span style="color: #000000;">);<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000FF;">var</span><span style="color: #000000;"> sl </span><span style="color: #000000;">=</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">0</span><span style="color: #000000;">;<br /> <br /> sl </span><span style="color: #000000;">=</span><span style="color: #000000;"> s.length;<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000FF;">for</span><span style="color: #000000;"> (i </span><span style="color: #000000;">=</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">-</span><span style="color: #000000;">1</span><span style="color: #000000;">, l </span><span style="color: #000000;">=</span><span style="color: #000000;"> sl; </span><span style="color: #000000;">++</span><span style="color: #000000;">i </span><span style="color: #000000;"><</span><span style="color: #000000;"> l;) {<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000FF;">for</span><span style="color: #000000;"> (j </span><span style="color: #0000FF;">in</span><span style="color: #000000;"> m) {<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000FF;">if</span><span style="color: #000000;"> (j.indexOf(s[i]) </span><span style="color: #000000;">+</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">1</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">&&</span><span style="color: #000000;"> r[r.length</span><span style="color: #000000;">-</span><span style="color: #000000;">1</span><span style="color: #000000;">] </span><span style="color: #000000;">!=</span><span style="color: #000000;"> m[j] </span><span style="color: #000000;">&&</span><span style="color: #000000;"> r.push(m[j])) {<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000FF;">break</span><span style="color: #000000;">;<br /> }<br /> }<br /> }<br /> <br /> </span><span style="color: #0000FF;">return</span><span style="color: #000000;"> r.length </span><span style="color: #000000;">></span><span style="color: #000000;"> p </span><span style="color: #000000;">&&</span><span style="color: #000000;"> (r.length </span><span style="color: #000000;">=</span><span style="color: #000000;"> p), r.join(</span><span style="color: #000000;">""</span><span style="color: #000000;">) </span><span style="color: #000000;">+</span><span style="color: #000000;"> (</span><span style="color: #0000FF;">new</span><span style="color: #000000;"> Array(p </span><span style="color: #000000;">-</span><span style="color: #000000;"> r.length </span><span style="color: #000000;">+</span><span style="color: #000000;"> </span><span style="color: #000000;">1</span><span style="color: #000000;">)).join(</span><span style="color: #000000;">"</span><span style="color: #000000;">0</span><span style="color: #000000;">"</span><span style="color: #000000;">);<br />}<br /><br />crmForm.all.new_soundex_lastname.DataValue</span><span style="color: #000000;">=</span><span style="color: #000000;">soundex(crmForm.all.lastname.DataValue);</span></div></pre></div><script language='javascript' src='http://www.blogtrog.com/scripts/bt_code.js' type='text/javascript'></script><script language='javascript' type='text/javascript'>bt_code_init('c6c89b88-e61e-4b28-b6ee-90595b449787');</script><br /><strong>4)</strong> add a duplicate rule & publish<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Sa-60uvWGZI/AAAAAAAAAF4/RpZWGYo_Q-s/s1600-h/ScreenHunter_05+Mar.+05+12.42.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309667900755679634" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 226px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Sa-60uvWGZI/AAAAAAAAAF4/RpZWGYo_Q-s/s400/ScreenHunter_05+Mar.+05+12.42.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><strong>5) </strong>enjoy life without unneccessary duplicates ;-) <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Sa_KZp2K1hI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/5l1qipHeWOw/s1600-h/marykate-and-ashley.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309685027771700754" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 213px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Sa_KZp2K1hI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/5l1qipHeWOw/s400/marykate-and-ashley.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><p><strong>Method 2 Plugin: Firing at Pre-Create event</strong><br /><strong>Pro:</strong> Works on Imports<br /><strong>Con:</strong> A bit more work</p>You can also create a plugin that generates the soundex-code, just use an <a href="http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/Soundex.aspx">example </a>on how to do that.<br><br>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-88306673444885976552009-02-12T16:20:00.011+01:002009-02-12T16:54:18.223+01:00Re-Release of Update Rollup 2 - V2After experiencing issues with Update Rollup 2 on several servers we decided to uninstall it and stay with Rollup 1. One bug was that servermessages were encrypted and (almost) unreadable. It could be reproduced on several servers using the german version of CRM 4.0.<br /><div></div><br /><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/SZQ-sRgzj2I/AAAAAAAAAE8/kRE6ReOCyKQ/s1600-h/ScreenHunter_02+Jan.+22+11.49.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301931591658082146" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 59px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/SZQ-sRgzj2I/AAAAAAAAAE8/kRE6ReOCyKQ/s400/ScreenHunter_02+Jan.+22+11.49.gif" border="0" /></a></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Due to that we opened a Microsoft supportcase. In the meantime a new version of Rollup Update 2 - "V2" has been released. The issues regarding the servermessages are gone.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">So watch out to get the re-released version when planning to install it! </span></strong>You can tell by filename (contains -V2) and in the setupwindow.</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><br><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/SZRBPiu8ZEI/AAAAAAAAAFE/vtxey3QqXr4/s1600-h/Rollup2.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301934396599460930" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 325px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/SZRBPiu8ZEI/AAAAAAAAAFE/vtxey3QqXr4/s400/Rollup2.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div><div></div><div></div><br /><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Get the re-release here:</div><br /><div><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=aa671769-61e9-45c4-919f-c88199aa4241&displaylang=en">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=aa671769-61e9-45c4-919f-c88199aa4241&displaylang=en</a></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com67tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-36126084637483547802008-04-24T14:20:00.016+01:002009-04-08T08:41:17.481+01:00Create "real" CRM 4.0-Style form-buttons in 5 minutes<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/SBCKmtczV5I/AAAAAAAAADQ/siwoyPnZcZY/s1600-h/crm40buttondemo2.png" target="_blank"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192802767998244754" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/SBCKmtczV5I/AAAAAAAAADQ/siwoyPnZcZY/s400/crm40buttondemo2.png" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div>There are several ways to add custom buttons onto a crm form (apart from the boring method of adding buttons via ISV-config 8-):<br /><strong>1. use an iFrame and an external page</strong><br />Drawback: no offline availability<br /><br /><strong>2.do some DOM-injection and create the buttons at runtime</strong><br />Drawback: a bit tricky with placement and so on<br /><br />And then there is:<br /><strong>3. <a href="http://crmstuff.blogspot.com/2008/02/create-button-on-your-form.html">Adis idea </a>to transform a textattribute into a button.</strong><br />The nice thing is, that you can use the normal formeditor to place it.<br /><br />So I took the idea further and applied the CRM 4.0 styles to make it look 100% native and more generic to use. (it even reacts to mousedown as expected - hehe ;-)<br /><br />What to do:<br /></div><ol><li>create a textattribute (you can set searchable to "no" so the attribute doesn't show up in advanced search</li><br /><br /><li>put it on the form<br /></li><li>make it "readonly" (Thanks Marcel!)<br /></li><li>copy the sourcecode into the onLoad event.</li><br /><br /><li>replace the fieldname "bwt_button1" in the last line with your attributename.<br /><br /></li><li>create your functions to tell the button what to do when clicked.<br /><br /><br /></li><li>have fun</li></ol><div><br /></div><p></p><p></p><div><br /></div><p>source:<br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:78%;color:#000000;">//////////////////////////////////////////////////////<br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:78%;color:#000000;">//////////////////////////////////////////////////////</span></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:78%;color:#000000;">//CRM 4.0-Style button creator<br />//Creates a Button from a Textattribute.<br />//For every Button you need, create a nText Attribute and place it on the Form<br />//mario raunig, world-direct 04/2008<br /><br />function create_button_from_textattribute(fieldname, buttontext, buttonwidth,clickevent)<br />{<br />functiontocall=clickevent;<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].DataValue = buttontext;<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.borderRight="#3366cc 1px solid";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.paddingRight="5px";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.borderTop="#3366cc 1px solid";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.paddingLeft="5px";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.fontSize="11px";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.backgroundImage="url(/_imgs/btn_rest.gif)";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.borderLeft="#3366cc 1px solid";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.width=buttonwidth;<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.cursor="pointer";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.lineHeight="18px";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.borderBottom="#3366cc 1px solid";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.backgroundRepeat="repeat-x";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.fontFamily="Tahoma";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.height="20px";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.backgroundColor="#cee7ff";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.textAlign="center";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].style.overflow="hidden";<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].attachEvent("onmousedown",push_button);<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].attachEvent("onmouseup",release_button);<br />crmForm.all[fieldname].attachEvent("onclick",functiontocall);<br />}<br /><br />function push_button(){<br />window.event.srcElement.style.marginLeft="1px";<br />window.event.srcElement.style.marginTop="1px";<br />}<br /><br />function release_button(){<br />window.event.srcElement.style.marginLeft="0px";<br />window.event.srcElement.style.marginTop="0px";<br />}<br /><br />// tell the button what to do<br />function testfunction()<br />{<br />alert('Ta-da!');<br />}<br /><br />// create the button<br />create_button_from_textattribute('bwt_button1', 'What a nice CRM 4.0 Button','184px',testfunction);</span></p><div><p><span style="font-size:78%;">//////////////////////////////////////////////////////<br />/</span><span style="font-size:78%;">////////////</span><span style="font-size:78%;">/////////////////////////////////////////<br /></p></span><p><span style="font-size:78%;"></span></p></div></div>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-40493067984218260222008-04-16T15:45:00.013+01:002008-12-10T16:01:42.875+01:00This year's "CRM Jahrestagung 2008"<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/SAYWXPawUbI/AAAAAAAAADA/5afSL4ToKtw/s1600-h/CRM_BusinessCircle.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5189860209122628018" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/SAYWXPawUbI/AAAAAAAAADA/5afSL4ToKtw/s400/CRM_BusinessCircle.png" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="http://www.businesscircle.at/veranstaltung.asp?vid=1024&register=details"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 100px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.businesscircle.at/files/vorschau/crm08_vorschau.jpg" border="0" /></a>Also this year we could showcase one of our projects at the annual "<a href="http://www.businesscircle.at/veranstaltung.asp?vid=1024&register=details">CRM Jahrestagung</a>" which is organized by <a href="http://www.businesscircle.at/">Businesscircle </a>and considered the most important CRM-Event in Austria. Amidst other speakers from companies such as "<em>D. SWAROVSKI & CO</em>", "<em>Nestlè Nespresso</em>", "<em>Telefònica</em>" and "<em>Dresdner Bank</em>" I could talk about our current project for <a href="http://www.bwt.at/">BWT</a>. Project Manager Markus Nachtmann and me focussed on the challenges of user adoption and training. We also gave our solution a name (<em>Jeannie</em>) to be able to blame someone, if it doesn't work as expected ;-) </div><br><br>PS: And yes, you can ask me how we got Jeannie into the left navigation area.Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-1879762630572168712008-03-31T15:06:00.020+01:002008-12-10T16:01:43.263+01:00CRM Picklist Generator is 1 year old - and 4.0 compatible<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5183918172686740178" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/R_D6HMuvatI/AAAAAAAAAC0/9jUoVErsHTc/s400/cities.PNG" border="0" /><br /><div><a href="http://marioraunig.blogspot.com/2007/03/save-time-and-energy-creating-large.html">One year has passed</a> and - as tiny as it might be - it seems that <a href="http://www.beatnik.at/picklist_for_mscrm.php">my tool </a>to save time when creating large picklists has proved to be pretty handy for many of you out there. It has been used more than 1.400 times up to now by visitors from 71 countries, from New Zealand to Ecuador and 700 cities, from Wellington to Nanaimo. As we are working on 4.0 projects I decided to make it compatible. It was just a minor that distinguishes 3.0 from 4.0 picklists in the export-XML. What is missing in 4.0 is the <options nextvalue="...">-tag. Have fun and drop me a line if you like it.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5183912945711540914" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/R_D1W8uvarI/AAAAAAAAACk/Kud5NauDPfE/s320/compatible.PNG" border="0" /><br /><br />You can get to the tool <a href="http://www.beatnik.at/picklist_for_mscrm.php">here</a> and see how to use it in the <a href="http://marioraunig.blogspot.com/2007/03/save-time-and-energy-creating-large.html">original post</a>.</div>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-38551567654307409162008-02-05T16:14:00.000+01:002008-02-05T16:25:26.618+01:00Meeting with Mark Corley, Senior Director of Dynamics CRM Channel StrategyToday I had a chance to meet up with Mark Corley in Vienna to talk about the Austrian CRM market with special emphasis on hosting. Mr. Corley is responsible for building Microsoft’s global Software + Service business for the Dynamics CRM product line – the delivery of sales force automation, customer service and marketing automation solutions directly over the Internet via hosting service providers. He is also responsible for managing all channel strategy activities and helping grow the CRM practices of its various business partners, including Value Added Resellers, System Integrators, Outsourcers, Independent Software Vendors (ISV) and Hosters.<br /><br />Among other things we also talked about <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/live/default.mspx">CRM Live</a> (the Microsoft-hosted sort of „out-of-the-box“ model) and I expressed my concerns, having in mind what every piece of literature about CRM will teach you first: „CRM is not a Software“. Anyway, CRM Live will not hit Europe in the next couple of months, so there is still some time to see what happens and how the US-market reacts. I asked Mark about integration of OWA (Outlook Web Access) which would be a huge step towards ASP-operation working without any software that has to be installed on the client. Hmmm… That seemed to have been a very good question. In my eye the complexity of such an integration would not be that high, let’s see what comes out of that. Having talked about expanding marketshare it looks like that our business model matches Microsoft’s long-term strategy. I can’t tell you more, sorry ;-)Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-4252394411084183382008-01-28T17:21:00.000+01:002008-12-10T16:01:43.579+01:00CRM 4.0 Online HandbookThe guys from <a href="http://www.redware.com" target="_blank">Redware</a> have taken the effort to put together a nice <a href="http://www.redware.com/mscrm/ms_crm_handbook/index.html" target="_blank">4.0 online manual </a>including screenshots and stuff. Nice work islanders!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5160564329267505506" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/R54B6maKqWI/AAAAAAAAABk/FURcnetQbto/s320/mscrm_4.0_handbook.GIF" border="0" />Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-82008488990774578352008-01-26T12:52:00.000+01:002008-12-10T16:01:43.712+01:00Press response to yesterday's 4.0 launch in AustriaA collection of press coverage in reaction to <a href="http://marioraunig.blogspot.com/2008/01/official-launch-of-crm-40-in-austria.html">yesterday's official launch </a>of 4.0 in Austria:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.report.at/artikel.asp?mid=1&kid=3&aid=13717">http://www.report.at/artikel.asp?mid=1&kid=3&aid=13717</a><br /><a href="http://www.monitor.co.at/index.cfm/storyid/9412">http://www.monitor.co.at/index.cfm/storyid/9412</a><br /><a href="http://www.computerwelt.at/detailArticle.asp?a=113942&n=2">http://www.computerwelt.at/detailArticle.asp?a=113942&n=2</a><br /><a href="http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=3197694">http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=3197694</a><br /><a href="http://www.be24.at/blog/entry/13438">http://www.be24.at/blog/entry/13438</a><br /><a href="http://www.pressetext.at/pte.mc?pte=080125014">http://www.pressetext.at/pte.mc?pte=080125014</a><br /><a href="http://www.pr-inside.com/de/sterreich-launch-von-microsoft-dynamics-r404759.htm">http://www.pr-inside.com/de/sterreich-launch-von-microsoft-dynamics-r404759.htm</a><br /><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/austria/presse/pressemeldung1825.mspx?ID=917bf1af-3b5c-4fec-a7ac-a66a06e1ce5b">http://www.microsoft.com/austria/presse/pressemeldung1825.mspx?ID=917bf1af-3b5c-4fec-a7ac-a66a06e1ce5b</a><br /><a href="http://www.mausketiere.com/cont/home_clippings_detail.aspx?siteNo=1&id=156071">http://www.mausketiere.com/cont/home_clippings_detail.aspx?siteNo=1&id=156071</a><br /><a href="http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung.php?schluessel=OTS_20080125_OTS0166&ch=technologie">http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung.php?schluessel=OTS_20080125_OTS0166&ch=technologie</a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/R6h2YGaKqYI/AAAAAAAAAB0/cdW0xf5ViZs/s1600-h/medianet_technology.PNG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163507129189575042" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="(c) medianet technology" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/R6h2YGaKqYI/AAAAAAAAAB0/cdW0xf5ViZs/s320/medianet_technology.PNG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/R6h14maKqXI/AAAAAAAAABs/yfvgTHbw0sw/s1600-h/medianet_technology.PNG"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/R6h14maKqXI/AAAAAAAAABs/yfvgTHbw0sw/s1600-h/medianet_technology.PNG"></a>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-54492782919191680412008-01-25T18:17:00.000+01:002008-12-10T16:01:43.935+01:00Official launch of CRM 4.0 in Austria – our project selected!Today Microsoft Dynamics 4.0 was officially launched in Austria. Therefore Microsoft held a press conference in Vienna, attendance and interest were better than expected. Many journalists of Austrian IT-media were present when Elisabeth Unger-Krenthaller (Product Manager Dynamics CRM) explained the benefits of the new version. One of our customers was selected to deliver first-hand information why to choose CRM 4.0. Thomas Engel, IT-Manager of <a href="http://www.baudata.at/">Bau-Data GmbH </a>praised multi-tenancy, multi-currency, outsourcing-capabilities and easy integration into backoffice and legacy applications. As this project will have some cool features such as Virtual Earth Integration to visualize realtime-data, i think, i’m gonna post one or the other screenshot as soon as we progressed further in the development process… <div></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/R5obH2aKqVI/AAAAAAAAABc/IKhUyo1_Yak/s1600-h/Pressekonferenz-Launch-CRM-4.0_klein.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5159466144784623954" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/R5obH2aKqVI/AAAAAAAAABc/IKhUyo1_Yak/s320/Pressekonferenz-Launch-CRM-4.0_klein.jpg" border="0" /></a></div>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-15997651031768816922007-12-24T12:17:00.000+01:002007-12-24T12:37:36.099+01:00CRM 4.0 Final German - 3 weeks ahead of schedule!When the final version of CRM 4.0 was released in English last monday it was announced that the release of "Wave0" languages (German, French, Spanish, Dutch) is expected for 11th of January 08. So it was a nice surprise that the German Edition has been released already - 3 weeks ahead of the expected date. Congratulations to the Product Management and Development Teams at Microsoft. Good job, I like positive surprises at the end of the year ;-)<br /><br />Download Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 German here:<br /><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=99CB3A7A-EBA9-4DE9-B0F1-2EBF11C3D756&displaylang=en">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=99CB3A7A-EBA9-4DE9-B0F1-2EBF11C3D756&displaylang=en</a>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-24725898294327810962007-10-23T09:51:00.000+01:002007-10-23T10:45:26.169+01:00News from Convergence 2007, CopenhagenBeing enrolled in the CTP program we knew about most of the new stuff for CRM 4.0 so there were not so many groundbreaking news on official day 1 of <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/default.aspx">Convergence</a> in Copenhagen, Denmark. However some exciting things were announced up to now.<br /><br /><ul><li><em>Presence Information</em> will make it into CRM 4.0. That means that you will be able to see if users are available. As far as i know this works together with LiveCommunications Server</li><li>New Editions and Pricing for 4.0 (subject to changes until launch)<br />There will be a <em>Workgroup Editi</em>on (user Limited, limited to one organization), a <em>Professional Edition</em> (no user limit, also limited to one organization but can be installed on more than one server) and an <em>Enterprise Edition</em> (no User Limit, multi-organizations, multi instances)</li><li>Possibility to have <em>User CALs</em> or <em>Machine CALs</em> (good for callcenters for example) or mix it.</li></ul><p>more to come....</p>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-59689183139556210082007-10-02T10:10:00.000+01:002007-10-03T13:38:44.127+01:00Features still missing in 4.0 (formerly called Titan)Non disclosure period ended yesterday and Michael Höhne (who else ;-) already wrote a very nice summary including screenshots regarding the main features of the new release. <a href="http://www.stunnware.com/crm2/topic.aspx?id=TitanBeta3">http://www.stunnware.com/crm2/topic.aspx?id=TitanBeta3</a><br /><br />We also evaluated the Preview Version (CTP3) and are very very very happy about the added functionality. Here are my favourites:<br /><br /><ul><li>Duplicate detection</li><li>Multi Tenancy</li><li>Multi Language</li><li>Better support of Internet Facing Deployments (HMC no longer necessary)</li><li>Changes in Workflow (Webbased Admin, Trigger on Attribute Change)</li><li>Cross-Entity Views</li><li>New Data Import- and Migrationtool supporting custom entities</li></ul><p>There are still some features that I was hoping for, which are not included in CTP3 (and will most likely not be included in the final version). Among these are:</p><ul><li>No multi-select picklists</li><li>No filtered lookups (Michael Höhne has a <a href="http://www.stunnware.com/crm2/topic.aspx?id=CustomLookupV142">workaround</a>, though)</li><li>No total number of records in views</li></ul><p></p><p></p>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-14984838093999488812007-06-25T08:49:00.000+01:002008-12-10T16:01:44.090+01:00Localization / Language Conversion ToolIn one of our current projects we had to deal with a multi-server installation in several european locations. The pilot deployment was in German and one installation was in Hungarian. Due to the fact that exported customizations are not compatible between languages, this can create a major problem, especially of you as implementation partner don't understand the target language. What we did was to create a document with a screenshot of every available form and a table underneath with all the fieldnames in language A. We gave this one to a translator so that we had all the forms translated. The implementation contains a lot of custom entities and relations so it would have been quite a hassle to manually recreate all those - especially if you don't understand a single word in the foreign language interface!<br /><br />Now Michael Höhne from Stunnware came into play who has created a <a href="http://www.stunnware.com/crm2/topic.aspx?id=LocalizationTool">"CRM Localization Tool" </a>which is a .NET application that helps a lot to save much time in such a scenario. Michael released this handy tool as a free utility, but don't forget to at least drop him a line if it was helpful to you. Thanks again Michael for your kind support.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Rn9-XvbBUkI/AAAAAAAAABU/zpscKbLatxs/s1600-h/languagetool.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5079917851029099074" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Rn9-XvbBUkI/AAAAAAAAABU/zpscKbLatxs/s320/languagetool.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br />As CRM 4.0 will support multiple languages, this tool will not be needed anymore, as soon as "Titan" is available.Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-33712274580039872272007-06-15T09:56:00.000+01:002007-06-15T11:31:02.702+01:00New German VPC-Demos (Deutsch Contoso 2007)This took a while, but the German Version of the VPC Demo for CRM 3.0 using the virtual company "Contoso" is out.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">"Contoso ist eine virtuelle Firma, die Unternehmenslösungen auf Basis von Microsoft-Technologien hervorragend veranschaulicht. Als Dreh- und Angelpunkt eigens konzipierter Demo-DVDs zeigt Contoso weit mehr als 40 Anwenderszenarien auf. Diese Szenarien orientieren sich an den Marketingkampagnen und sind erweiterbar, sodass Sie Ihre eigenen Lösungen und Anwendungen nahtlos integrieren können."</span><br /><br />Download:<br /><a href="http://members.microsoft.com/partner/germany/verkauf/contoso/dvd/downloads.mspx">http://members.microsoft.com/partner/germany/verkauf/contoso/dvd/downloads.mspx</a> (Partner Login required).<br /><br />I'm downloading it now and will keep you updated about speed and functionality.<br /><br />Also a new english VPC-demo will soon be released.<br /><a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/mscrmfreak/archive/2007/06/12/new-microsoft-dynamics-crm-vpc-update.aspx">http://blogs.msdn.com/mscrmfreak/archive/2007/06/12/new-microsoft-dynamics-crm-vpc-update.aspx</a>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-86020738157536098642007-04-13T13:41:00.000+01:002008-12-10T16:01:44.499+01:00Extracting GUIDs using ExcelSometimes you might need GUIDs when you export data, so that you can use these as keys for further processing. Too bad you can't add GUIDs as columns for the resultset. An easy way to achive that (apart from querying the database directly) is using Excel.<br /><br />1. Export your "Advanced Search" or a predefined View as "Dynamic Worksheet"<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Rh98EXMmnZI/AAAAAAAAAA8/ry4uFZrKkk4/s1600-h/xls.PNG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5052893721321184658" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Rh98EXMmnZI/AAAAAAAAAA8/ry4uFZrKkk4/s320/xls.PNG" border="0" /></a> 2. Rightclick on any of the records and go to "Edit Query" - ignore the error-message. <p><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Rh98EnMmnaI/AAAAAAAAABE/150W8MZexnw/s1600-h/sql.PNG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5052893725616151970" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Rh98EnMmnaI/AAAAAAAAABE/150W8MZexnw/s320/sql.PNG" border="0" /></a> 3. After closing the resulting window Excel will display the GUIDs - it's magic!<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Rh98EnMmnbI/AAAAAAAAABM/04fuROX6bDc/s1600-h/xls2.PNG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5052893725616151986" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/Rh98EnMmnbI/AAAAAAAAABM/04fuROX6bDc/s320/xls2.PNG" border="0" /></a><br />Of course you can also use this method to directly query the database by clicking "SQL" in the query window ;-)<br /><br /></p>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-61420430438850282482007-04-06T07:30:00.000+01:002008-12-10T16:01:44.657+01:00IE7 hangs during import of customizationsThis one gave me headache already a couple of times:<br />when you try to import customizations, the upload works fine but when you select "import customizations" or "import selected customizations" the following popup hangs. This is a known issue and seems to be connected with Internet Explorer 7. What I found was that the import has worked, it's just the visual feedback ("OK" button being enabled) that is missing.<br /><br /><br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5050200396323335602" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 0px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/RhXqgNtjrbI/AAAAAAAAAA0/ndZOFa1vQDI/s320/ie7import.gif" border="0" /><br /><br />there are 3 ways to resolve that: </p><ol><li>install the hotfix (no download, needs to be requested from MS)<br /><a href="https://mbs.microsoft.com/knowledgebase/KBDisplay.aspx?WTNTZSMNWUKNTMMYKORSXPPNNWUNVVRWPZPLMTWLPSRXUNXUTUUMMTPWXKUTYROM&wa=wsignin1.0">https://mbs.microsoft.com/knowledgebase/KBDisplay.aspx?WTNTZSMNWUKNTMMYKORSXPPNNWUNVVRWPZPLMTWLPSRXUNXUTUUMMTPWXKUTYROM&wa=wsignin1.0</a></li><li>wait a few seconds, close the window and publish, the import has worked!</li><li>Use IE6<br /></li></ol><br /><br /><br />Note: This one is not fixed with the Rollup Update1.Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-64440844656615532602007-03-27T23:34:00.003+01:002008-12-10T16:01:44.803+01:00Save time and energy creating large picklistsSome time ago I created an online tool which makes life easier if you have to generate large picklists. Creating every item one-by-one can be very tideous. Caution: only use it, if you are comfortable with editing XML-Files and know exactly what you are doing ;-)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.beatnik.at/picklist_for_mscrm.php"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5046741548162476898" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZTssLBATpbk/RgmgswNt62I/AAAAAAAAAAs/z1hnZN5ny9o/s200/picklistgenerator.GIF" border="0" /></a><br /><strong>Here's how to use it (at your own risk):</strong> <ol><li>Create the attribute/picklist in the Microsoft CRM entity customization</li><br /><li>Add at least one option</li><br /><li>Export the entity as XML</li><br /><li>go here: <a href="http://company.world-direct.at/picklist4mscrm">http://www.beatnik.at/picklist_for_mscrm.php</a><br /><li>Choose the appropriate language setting (if missing, contact me)</li><br /><li>Enter the desired picklist values into the textbox</li><br /><li>Click "Generate XML"</li><br /><li>Open the XML-File that you exported in step (3) with WordPad or your favourite TextEditor (Notepad tends to have problems with encoding)</li><br /><li>Search for the displayname or the schemaname of the attribute</li><br /><li>Replace the <strong>options</strong> tag with the XML-String generated in (7).<br />It might look like that:</li><br /><pre class="source-code"><code><options nextvalue="3"><br /> ...<br /></options><br /></code></pre><br /><li>Save the XML-Customizations File</li><br /><li>Import the File into MS CRM and publish</li></ol>Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6091874441827904269.post-27915848414450125602007-03-26T12:06:00.001+01:002007-03-27T20:53:02.445+01:00Hello World!I'm working as a crm consultant for <a href="http://www.world-direct.at">world-direct.at</a>, a subsidiary company of <a href="http://www.telekom.at">Telekom Austria</a>. Together with our CRM-Team I am planning and implementing Microsoft CRM solutions in Austria with a strong focus on tight integration into backend- and legacy systems.<br /><br />On this blog I try to share our experiences using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and hope to give you valuable hints, tipps and tricks for survival with MSCRM ;-)Mario Raunighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289075910360775855noreply@blogger.com0